OUR BUREAUMumbai, June 22

A growing middle class, thedistinct advantage of havingone of the youngest popula-tions in the world and grow-ing Internet penetration en-abling better access than everbefore leaves no doubt thatIndia is poised for unpreced-ented growth, according toSanjiv Mehta, Chairman &Managing Director, Hindus-tan Unilever Limited.

Speaking at the company’sAnnual General Meeting, Me-hta said, “The second wave ofthe pandemic has been brutaland has ravaged the nation.However, we believe that theeff�ects of the pandemic arejust a pause in India’s con-sumption and growth story. Ithas been a speed breaker inIndia’s growth journey butwill not change thetrajectory.”

He added that the pan-demic has pushed businesses

to break new ground and re-imagine the future that isequitable, sustainable, andpurposeful. To achieve this, hesaid it would take concertedeff�orts from governments,businesses, and individuals.

Intelligent ecosystemsIn his speech titled 'Winningin the New Decade', Mehtagave shareholders a glimpseof the company’s future readi-ness. He said the company isbuilding an ‘Intelligent Enter-prise,’ and the HUL of the fu-ture will be a web of intelli-gent ecosystems.

Talking about how thepower of a strong technologybackbone became apparentfor the business during the

pandemic, Mehta spokeabout the ‘Reimagine HUL’agenda and how it redefi�nedHUL's engagement with con-sumers, customers and theway the company operates. Toillustrate this, he said thattoday over 500,000 stores inIndia use Shikhar — HUL’seB2B app, which helped thecompany receive orders evenwhen the salesmen could notreach the outlets during lock-downs.

“Technology is going to bethe game changer, shaping so-cieties as well as businesses.With education and medicalfacilities moving into the vir-tual space, it can, in fact, bethe key to broad-based devel-opment of human capital,making products and servicesmore accessible and demo-cratised,” he said

On the future of work-places, he said the new levelsof uncertainty and volatilitythat “we see around us re-quire a fundamental shift inthe way we work and the waywe help our talent develop toface the challenges of thefuture."

Technology to be game changer for businesses

Sanjiv Mehta, CMD

India poised for unprecedentedgrowth: HUL’s Sanjiv Mehta